A51840:443
A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…
A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture in two parts : part the first containing LXXIV sermons : part the second containing LXXVI sermons : with an alphabetical table to the whole / by ... Thomas Manton ...
London: printed by J. D., 1693
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. There must not be Offence in Quantity: Fullness of Bread was one of Sodom's Sins, Ezek. 16.49. that is, Excess in the Use of the Creature. Now how shall we state this Excess? Not merely by the Custom of Nations, for Sins may be authorized by general Practice, as Sodom's Sin was Fullness of Bread. Not merely by the Greatness of the Estate; Plenty doth not warrant Excess. If a Man have never so much Cloth, yet he would not make his Garment too big for him. If the Meat ⟨p. 74⟩be too salt, it is no Excuse to the Cook to say, he had good store of Salt by him: So will it be no Plea that God hath given you Plenty, and a great Estate to warrant you in your Excess. The Heart may be over-charged when the Purse is not. Neither must it be measured by the Capacity of the Stomach: Christ doth not say, Take heed you do not over-charge your Stomach with Surfeiting and Drunkenness▪ but your Heart, Luke 21.34. Some Men are strong to drink Wine, they are Tubs and Hogsheads, as Ambrose calls them, rather than Men. But it is not when the Stomach is overcharged; but the Conscience, when it grows secure and carnal; or the Heart, when it is not fit for Duties, less apt to be lifted up to God in Prayers and Thanksgivings, and the Mind cannot be lifted up to heavenly things. So that the Measure in this kind must be our Fitness to perform the Duties of our general and particular Calling; and when that is exceeded, then we sin.
1. There must not be Offence in Quantity: Fulness of Bread was one of Sodom's Sins, Ezek. 16.49. that is, Excess in the Use of the Creature. Now how shall we state this Excess? Not merely by the Custom of Nations, for Sins may be authorized by general Practice, as Sodom's Sin was Fulness of Bread. Not merely by the Greatness of the Estate; Plenty doth not warrant Excess. If a Man have never so much Cloth, yet he would not make his Garment too big for him. If the Meat ⟨p. 74⟩be too salt, it is no Excuse to the Cook to say, he had good store of Salt by him: So will it be no Plea that God hath given you Plenty, and a great Estate to warrant you in your Excess. The Heart may be over-charged when the Purse is not. Neither must it be measured by the Capacity of the Stomach: Christ doth not say, Take heed you do not over-charge your Stomach with Surfeiting and Drunkenness but your Heart,